Quote:
Originally Posted by
Trish 
Penny was getting very frustrated now, and she still hadn't located Mercury..
Looking over at Alyssa, she said "I still can't see it, please help me", hoping her friend would assist her..... Penny knew that Alyssa had already located the planet for she, Penny, had hear Alyssa woop with joy...
Before Alyssa could slide over to Penny to help her find Mercury, she heard the Professor stand up and speak.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Nordic Witch As the student's began shuffling to set up their telescopes Edvard took a few minutes to study his lesson plan. Hearing murmurs of difficulties with finding Mercury and some student's who worked like detectives he decided to step in to maybe clear away the confusion.
"Mercury is the little silver, white and brownish planet that is only visible a little time before dawn and is very close to/ right next to the Sun. How long do you all think it is till dawn?" Edvard asked as he shot a look out of the window at the horizon where then sun should soon come up.
Remembering a comment that the lion prefect had made he added "It can also help if you look for Jupiter or Venus first and then go from one of them to find Mercury like Miss Hollingberry was just explaining..."
"But yes normally Mercury is only visible for a short while at dawn but this is a wizarding school is it not and here anything is possible with the help of magic, right?"
Taking up his wand Edvard said "To help you focus your magical telescopes i'm going to teach you a focus spell for the lens called lens focalis. The wand movement is a swish and then tap motion on the telescope."
Taking out a telescope from the cupboard he demonstrated the wand movement slowly, showing the swish and then tap on the telescope. "lens focalis!" he said firmly. Turning to adress the student's again he said "Practice the incantion first and then test it out on your telescopes. If you've done it right what you see in your telescopes should be more clear and sharp."
OCC: Practice the new focus charm on your telescopes and see if you can find Mercury now with the help of your telescopes and the information I've provided (at dawn it should be visible right next to the sun or you can do as sweetpinkpixie suggested and look for Jupiter or Venus first before locating Mercury).
"Let's just practice the focus charm, Penny, like the Professor taught us to."Alyssa advised Penny. Even though, she had already located Mercury she wanted to see if the focus charm worked and that what she thought was Mercury indeed was Mercury.
Taking her wand, Alyssa first practiced the wand movements, swish and tap. Once she was familiar with the movements, she swished and tapped the wand on her telescope and said "lens focalis". She looked through her telescope and everything in the sky looked clearer...and here comes the sun!! The time has passed so fast and dawn was approaching. As the sun started rising in the east, Alyssa waited for about 30 minutes and then making sure that she hadn't moved her telescope from its last position, Alyssa peeked through the lens. There He is! Mercury!! The silver white brownish planet, that she thought she had seen earlier. Right to the east of the Sun. Only it was a lot clearer now.
She leaned over to Penny. "Quick Penny, you don't have much time. Mercury can only be seen thirty minutes right after the sun rises....and it's starting to rise fast. Look east of the Sun and you'll find it."